US States Can Finally Start Applying for IRA Incentive Money
By the end of the year, rebates for heat pumps and other high-efficiency electrical appliances could be available to some US consumers.
A solar battery is installed on a home in Lafayette, California.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergAlmost a year after US President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, American consumers are one step closer to receiving the generous rebates it includes for heat pumps and other high-efficiency electrical appliances. On Thursday, the federal government began accepting applications from states to administer more than $8.5 billion in IRA funding tied to those expenditures.
To hone states’ applications, the Department of Energy (DOE) is providing them with guidance for designing programs to distribute funding to their residents. Once the DOE approves a program from a state or US territory, it will allocate a lump sum to fund those rebates; that funding ranges from $50 million for American Samoa to $690 million for Texas. Nationwide, the incentive pot includes $4.3 billion for replacing fossil fuel furnaces and other appliances with electric devices, and another $4.3 billion to pay for insulation and other home efficiency upgrades.